The Executive Director of the Australian Retailers’ Association (ARA), Russell Zimmerman, said April trade figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed reasonable year-on-year growth of 2.84%, with Queensland (5.99%) and Victoria (3.68%) posting healthy year-on-year growth.
“Today’s ABS retail trade figures were disappointing overall for April, coming off 3.51% year-on-year growth for March,” Mr Zimmerman said.
“It was pleasing to see department stores experience year-on-year growth of 2.65%, which is the strongest growth seen this year,” Mr Zimmerman said.
The clothing, footwear and personal accessories category recorded 4.04% year-on-year growth in April, which could be due to unseasonably warm weather experienced over the Easter and April trading period.
Food retailing (4.23%) and cafés, restaurants and takeaway food services (2.69%) both experienced a decrease in sales during April compared to March, which was concerning given this included the Easter and Anzac Day trading period.
Household goods retailing (-1.57) softened during the month of April, which could reflect the slowdown in residential real estate sales which has been well documented for some months now.
“It is alarming to see the steep decline in sales of newspapers and books (-10.97) as we have now seen 21 consecutive months of falling sales. It is obvious this is one part of the retail sector that is suffering from structural issues and adverse trading conditions,” Mr Zimmerman said.
Across the country, Queensland (5.99%), Victoria (3.68%), South Australia (3.13%), Australian Capital Territory (2.77%),Tasmania (2.59%), New South Wales (1.23%), Western Australia (0.50%),recorded substantial growth, while the Northern Territory (-1.30%) recorded negative growth in April.
With the federal election now behind us, we hope to see retail trade figures rebound strongly, as any effect from the election period washes out of the numbers.
Monthly Retail Growth (March 2019 – April 2019 seasonally adjusted)
Department stores (2.01%), Other retailing (0.83%), Food retailing (0.15%),Cafés, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.76%),Household goods retailing (-1.20%) and Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-1.41%).
Queensland (0.83%), Tasmania (0.26%), Australian Capital Territory (0.24%), Western Australia (0.06%), Northern Territory (-0.46%), Victoria (-0.55%),New South Wales (-0.62%), and South Australia (-0.68%).
Total sales (-0.14%).
Year-on-Year Retail Growth (April 2018 – April 2019 seasonally adjusted)
Food retailing (4.23%), Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (4.04%), Other retailing (3.88%), Cafés, restaurants and takeaway food services (2.69%), Department stores (2.65%) and Household goods retailing (-1.57%).
Queensland (5.99%), Victoria (3.68%), South Australia (3.13%), Australian Capital Territory (2.77%),Tasmania (2.59%), New South Wales (1.23%), Western Australia (0.50%), and Northern Territory (-4.49%).
Total sales (2.84%).
Tuesday, 4 June 2019
